{"id":413952,"date":"2026-01-18T07:54:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/413952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T07:54:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:54:49","slug":"lost-process-no-finish-unrecognizable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/413952\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Process, No Finish, Unrecognizable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timo Meier<\/a> brought up a great point in the New Jersey Devils<\/a>\u2018 postgame scrums.<\/p>\n

When the Devils struggle to score goals like they have all season long, they move away from their process, and the focus becomes to just score goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of, \u2018Now we have to score.\u2019 We\u2019re thinking, \u2018Score a goal,\u2019 instead of all the little things that lead to a goal. That\u2019s kind of what happened. We have to adjust that, fix that,\u201d Meier explained.<\/p>\n

That results in sloppy plays and defensive breakdowns, just as it did in the Devils\u2019 4-1 loss<\/a> to the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

In three of four meetings, the Devils are now 0-3-0 against their division rival and have yet to jump that hurdle that they continually trip over.<\/p>\n

Six points separate the Devils from playoff position. If they somehow, miraculously, squeak their way into the postseason, the Devils are just going to meet the Hurricanes again.<\/p>\n

I think we all know how that\u2019s going to end. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to some observations from tonight.<\/p>\n

Observations<\/p>\n

I mean, far and away, the Devils\u2019 most daunting issue is scoring. You might say it\u2019s defense. You could say it\u2019s goaltending. However, like Meier explained, when the Devils aren\u2019t scoring, they get away from their process. They\u2019re built to be a high puck possession team with plus defending. When that wanes, they\u2019re supposed to be bailed out by goaltending. Yet, that hasn\u2019t been the case.<\/p>\n

Part of that puck possession is supposed to result in goals. That\u2019s not happening either. ESPECIALLY on the power play. Before Meier scored tonight, the Devils were on a 0\/27 run against Carolina while on the man advantage in their last 10 games. They\u2019re now 1\/28. Their power play has been dreadful. And against the Hurricanes, it\u2019s an all-time low.<\/p>\n

The most discouraging part about this game was that the process was actually working through the first 33-plus minutes. The Devils held the Hurricanes shotless through the first 10 minutes and ended the opening frame with a 1-4 shot advantage. In the first 10 minutes of the second, they kept the pressure up on Carolina. And then they crumbled after<\/a> Andre Svechnikov capitalized on the Devils\u2019 first mistake. It\u2019s shocking how their self-inflicted wounds completely remove their confidence and their process.<\/p>\n

Speaking of mistakes, it\u2019s just a shame how Luke Hughes<\/a> made the first one because he was playing SO well before he did. A turnover in the neutral zone sent Sebastian Aho to the Devils\u2019 end on an odd-man rush, and Svechnikov buried the opening goal. After the last meeting with the Hurricanes ended the way it did, Luke didn\u2019t need that added to his low-light reel.<\/p>\n

And while we\u2019re talking about blunders, Jacob Markstrom<\/a> is another case of a player who unravels when the pressure turns up. The first goal wasn\u2019t on him; however, the second absolutely was. He was square to Svechnikov and decently high in the crease. There was no screen, and he was able to see the puck all the way. It just snuck through his five-hole. Had he made that stop, when Meier scores later, it\u2019s a tie game and we\u2019re talking about a different kind of game. Alas\u2026<\/p>\n

It cannot be stressed enough how badly the Devils need a finisher. The Devils wound up losing the scoring chance differential by a decent margin. However, they won the high-danger chance differential 11-10. Jack Hughes got in alone on Frederick Andersen. Then Jesper Bratt. In fact, they each got a handful of opportunities. And when the top guys are not scoring, no one else is.<\/p>\n

At this point, I\u2019m not sure what form that finisher comes in. Do you mortgage the future for a 35-year-old Steven Stamkos<\/a>? Or do you throw in the towel on the season and target someone like Jason Robertson in the summer? Tom Fitzgerald<\/a> explained he\u2019s buying, and the goal is to get to the playoffs. However, that could derail the Devils for years to come. It\u2019s actually a terrifying thought for a Devils fan. And you have to ask if Fitzgerald should even be the one to make the decision.<\/p>\n

Lastly, what I think hindered the Devils\u2019 ability to create more chances throughout the game was at both blue lines. The Devils\u2019 breakouts were awful. And their zone entries were no better. New Jersey folded under the pressure of the forecheck. They couldn\u2019t get pucks in the offensive zone\u2014especially on the power play\u2014to create more chances. Yes, they had 11 at high danger. Yet, they could have had even more if they were able to cleanly enter and exit zones with the puck. They wound up resorting to dump and chase, losing those puck battles too, and completely lost their identity as the game progressed. They\u2019ve officially become unrecognizable from the team they once were.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timo Meier brought up a great point in the New Jersey Devils\u2018 postgame scrums. When the Devils struggle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[29,201,3723,51930,5,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-413952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-devils-observations","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-new-jersey","14":"tag-new-jersey-devils","15":"tag-newjersey","16":"tag-newjerseydevils","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115915032561129737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}